Zombie horde to descend on village

Lewis Hodgson

BURK’S FALLS – You’ve been practicing your zombie swagger but haven’t had a chance to use it? Well, you’re in luck.

Writer/director Lewis Hodgson is working on a short film that needs zombies at 7 p.m. on May 15.

“We are going to be filming part of a zombie flick at Tim Hortons,” he said. “We’re just trying to drum up interest to see if anyone wants to zombie around the parking lot a little bit.”

Don’t start wiping on the cake makeup just yet. The extras will be filmed from behind as the zombie hordes move toward the coffee shop.

Hodgson is filming the short film under the billing of Preposthumous Productions, and the working title of the film is Morning Zombies.

“It’s about a group of coffee shop employees who make a last stand against the zombie horde,” he said.

He says the film, which is expected to have a run time of 8 to 10 minutes, has a twist at the end.

For folks wanting to show up for the outdoor horde scene should dress like they normally would as they head to work in the morning.

The rest of the film is being short in North Bay.

“There is a Coffee Time that isn’t open 24 hours and for us to come in and take over the interior of Tim Hortons is just not going to happen,” he said.

They will film the indoor scenes in the evening while the Coffee Time is closed for business.

This is not Hodgson’s first foray into writing and directing.

“I did one a few years ago, which was my first so I learned all my mistakes,” he said. “Now we’re taking it to the next level. Now I know what I’m doing and I have a good crew.”

This is the same crew Hodgson worked on with other projects including the music video for local country singer Pam Miller.

It includes his wife Heather, doing production and art department; Kevin Hoffman, who is the principal zombie and sound editor; and Patrick Gilbert, cinematographer/director of photography. Both Hoffman and Gilbert are from North Bay.

Hodgson will act in the film.

Other projects in the works include a film Hodgson wrote for Hoffman called Boys Will Be Boys, a coming of age stories taking place in the 1960s.

He is also working on a TV pilot called Lewis and Clarke Discover, a cooking and music program to market to the Food Network. They will be filming the first episode of that at the Pie Bird B&B in Nipissing.

The forth project is an “as yet to be named horror/thriller that I’ve been commissioned to write.”

Hodgson says the film will be shot in the north, however, there is still much work to be done before they begin thinking about locations.